Town of Niagara hopes to unload road millings

TOWN OF NIAGARA – The town wants to unload an estimated 500 tons of millings, left over from the current blitz of road repaving projects, that are now stockpiled at the LaSalle Sportsmen’s Club on Tuscarora Road. .

Millings are the crushed by-product of road resurfacing work. The material’s usefulness is limited.

“It’s not like stone,” Highway Superintendent Robert Herman explained when asked if the millings could be sold to a developer for a project like the Fashion Outlets of Niagara expansion. Millings are normally used for shoulders of roads, but are not considered durable enough to be a major component of a parking lot or an entire street. Town crews use up as much as they can, he noted.

The surplus material is normally piled at the highway garage, but because of limited space, the town has had to use the club’s property for approximately 20 truckloads.

“They’ve been gracious,” Herman said about the club, which has not charged the town so far for the storage.

“We continue to try to find a way to get rid of them,” he said about the millings.

Part of that process involved the Town Board last week as it discussed the issue at a work session.

The board, which is expected to make a decision at its regular meeting tonight, mulled over what should be done and made an informal agreement to sell the millings, but with certain restrictions.

The councilmen and Deputy Supervisor Sylvia Virtuoso agreed that the millings would be sold in 100-ton lots. Residents would be permitted to make a purchase but commercial vendors would not be able to use them for resale.

As the discussion continued, the price was set at $8 a ton if picked up and $15 if delivered by the town. Councilman Charles Teixeira said he was not comfortable using town workers to make deliveries in case they were injured on the job.

Virtuoso encouraged the board members to come to a decision, as she understood the club “would like it off their property.”

Herman said the millings are probably not worth much and are at their “cheapest value” in their current state. “The value would be greater if they were screened and reground,” he said.